Who you gonna’ believe, me or your own eyes?
— Chico (disguised as Groucho) Marx, in the motion picture Duck Soup
During the eventful first week of November 2013, the Sun and Saturn briefly shared the same degree of Scorpio to begin a new cycle of their relationship. After their conjunction, the Sun left Saturn behind. Saturn remains in Scorpio to this day. Now, as the Aquarius Sun moves toward 90 degrees of separation from Saturn next Tuesday (an opening square aspect), their relationship implies an appropriate time to examine and evaluate what has taken shape for you over the last three months.
The words ‘examine’ and ‘evaluate’ have anxious connotations for many because examinations and evaluations are often conducted by figures and institutions of authority to judge and define you based on the results.
Not so with the approaching square from the Sun to Saturn. Now opens a time when you may become your own authority, walking the narrow path of judging and defining yourself.
How such an opening came to be begins with what the Sun and Saturn symbolize in common. Most plainly, the Sun and Saturn represent the bookends of both consciousness and authority for astrologers.
In his book Horoscope Symbols, Robert Hand concisely equated the Sun’s light with the light of consciousness. For his own part, Jeff Green (in his revolutionary tome Pluto: The Evolutionary Journey of the Soul) opined that “Saturn defines the boundaries of our subjective consciousness — that of which we are consciously aware.”
In other words, it’s just like the actual solar system, as visible to the unaided eye. The Sun is emblematic of the central source and first principle of sentience, while Saturn represents the outer limits of cognition’s container.
Similarly, the Sun has an ancient and pan-cultural correspondence with central authority. Saturn, in turn, has long been associated with the deliberate means and social structures through which authority asserts its power.
Now, it appears that the traditional relationship between authority and consciousness is open to some revision, a process that has been taking shape for about three months.
That’s because of where and when the Sun merged with Saturn back on Nov. 6, 2013. The place was Scorpio, the energetic field of metamorphosis and transformation. The time was three days after the conclusion of a monumental eclipse cycle and one day after Venus entered Saturn’s realm of Capricorn (where it remains to this day) for a long retrograde cycle that has reeked of a long-overdue revaluation of where consciousness and authority come together.
What started with an Aries lunar eclipse on Oct. 18 and concluded with a Scorpio solar eclipse on Nov. 3 functioned as expected: to leave old patterns behind, while leaving you on a distant shore to reorient yourself.
In retrospect, however, there was something exponentially more to the previous season’s eclipse cycle that keeps resonating through subsequent events — which, in turn, repeatedly redefine their customary brand. Witness the first Venus retrograde exclusively within Capricorn for more than two centuries. Now, the opening square from the Aquarius Sun to a nearly stationary Saturn is ripening to reveal what is further taking shape, which is where you come in.
In order for the impending Sun-Saturn square to express as something other than a customary case of anxiety, you need to believe your own eyes and interpret the aspect based on what you see. You need to examine and evaluate the tension you may already be feeling and consider that it may originate with some opportunity you have to reclaim at least some of the power you have given away for so long.
Long ago, most of us acquiesced to have authority figures judge and define us. It was the path of least resistance, and it is to be expected that you may feel resistance when faced with the opportunity to reclaim some measure of authority to judge and define yourself.
If you believe your own eyes, the boundaries of your conscious awareness must now be pushed, and you must do the pushing. It is an uncomfortable prospect to leave your container, which nonetheless probably explains much of what has taken shape for you over the last three months.
Now, it’s a question of whether you are willing to continue, by consciously pushing back against your own, inner discomfort instead of something (or somebody) on the outside — even as you examine and evaluate the risks and rewards of a new pattern in your life. It won’t be easy. It will be worthwhile, especially when you consider that the alternative is to climb back into a container that is probably not long for this world.
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Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
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Lizzy, joya (welcome!), P. Sophia, Lunesoleil, strawberry, Mary, and DivaCarla: Apologies for having missed thanking you last week (things were a bit hectic) and please be so kind as to accept my belated (but sincere) thanks today.
Dear Len,
Reading this today, and I can barely comment as my language would be a string of curses that would get my mouth washed out with soap if my grandmother heard me. Still can’t help it, this is so motherfuckig right on, … the distant shore… how about abandoned on a desert island. This square looks like my one chance to get off the island, and it’s an inner job, and it is so goddam hard. Or so it seems. The Will to do what needs to be done, and be who needs to be. The next four days is very important. I’ll be reading this every day for a reminder, and big choking horse pill of courage.
Thank you… I guess
🙂
(((( HUGS))))
As Saturn moved on from my Scorpio Moon (shout out to strawberrylaughter), not even a degree past, I felt a certain relief. Now I read that there is more for me and this second Saturn return (my Moon is conjunct Saturn) … as this happens in Scorpio-land, the sun nears my Sun, a week away and Mercury/ascending @ 21 degrees. All of this gives me such a treasure trove of info about the anxiety that I’ve been racing from all these years AND helps me own my own authority in this life. Really, it is time (she says to Saturn).
I’ve wondered what to do with this nudgy person at this otherwise quiet-peacefilled place. I am getting the sense that she’s helping me see how much I had leaned on others for my own validation all these years. I don’t want her to need me that way … as I’ve needed others for so long. I feel her pain on this but I’m done now.
mm
ps: excellent transit guide, thank you len!
Len, I am loving the “initial steps” concept of the opening square. Just yesterday, I realized that Saturn is now basically stationary conjoined my Moon, and will be for the next couple of months as it stations retrograde (when it will travel from my Moon to my BML and back) — can we say potential for finding some emotional stability? Hallelujah.
Tying all of that to the notion of this as the opening square to November 3 is why you get paid the big bucks. 😉 That Scorpio eclipse blew the structures of my life out of the water, as it were. Now things are, if not settling, then at least coalescing into potentialities that I like a lot, and which make room for me.
But most of all, I resonate to your admonition that the next step will require pushing back against the inner discomfort. It’s easier to reject other people’s shit than my own, but I’m learning to look within; I can do this. Thanks for the perspective, Len.
I had not noticed the Sun Saturn square, I understand my neck of hangover, some form of injury that I express a different kind of in my article in the last quarter moon. There were another tonight that was not happy and in his card the Sun square Saturn t Yes what is high is like what is at the bottom
Beautiful night of quarter moon at all and a new revolution solar 2014 has you Len with mercury and Neptune, I wish you the most beautiful inspirations
Hi Len, thank you for bringing this broader perspective of harnessing the means and structure of containment to awareness in the timing of the eclipses, and the aspect Sun square Saturn. Because in concert with Mercury turning retrograde today, Saturn is exactly what I have been meditating on this week.
Mercury Rx conjunct the Neptune transit happens to be exactly conjunct my natal Saturn at 4 degrees Pisces. This has brought an intention to further reveal the ‘secret’ of where it is most fitting, at this time (in the overall scheme of things) to finally allow my light to shine bright from within.
So with either aspect, or maybe it is due to both, manifesting is the direction I am being led, and I guess you could say I am personally allowing the push. There have been lots of messages I am noticing, following and visioning deliberate means (personal), and the venue is social structures (vibration containment) through which (my) authority can best assert (align) its power (energy).
All this is in the foreground, to the BIG background picture you describe -to share (theme trust), in my little way it would be an honor to help devote myself to the bright advancement of this evolution in a fundamental, and harmonious collaborative way.
It’s a big week of ‘spreading’, many good things are opening up to fertile ground, and one of them continues to be you Len, my good teacher and friend! Again, wishing you a very happy birthday, with many, many joyful returns to you.
“What started with an Aries lunar eclipse on Oct. 18 and concluded with a Scorpio solar eclipse on Nov. 3 functioned as expected: to leave old patterns behind, while leaving you on a distant shore to reorient yourself.” — LOL, literally. I am now in a different country after a bunch of shit kicked off the night of Oct 18th…
Thank you dear Len – this is just great. Right now I am really battling with judgement (mainly self-judgement and the need for approval from others) that has plagued me all my life, as if I have to really open up to where it hurts most in order to heal. Your words go very deep.